Amateur Minnesota Somali Actor Up For Oscar

Somali-American actor Barkhad Abdi poses with the award for a supporting actor for his work on the film "Captain Phillips" at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Opera House in London on February 16, 2014.(credit: CARL COURT/AFP/Getty Images)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A Somali actor from Minnesota is up for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar Sunday night for his screen debut in “Captain Philips.”

Barkhad Abdi plays the ringleader of a band of Somali pirates who hijacked an American cargo ship off the Horn of Africa in 2009. Tom Hanks stars as the ship’s captain who is taken hostage by the pirates.

Abdi won the supporting actor prize at the British Academy Film Awards in February. He also was nominated for a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild award.

At the Academy Awards he’ll go up against Bradley Cooper, nominated for “American Hustle; Michael Fassbender for “12 Years a Slave,” Jonah Hill for “The Wolf of Wall Street” and Jared Leto for “Dallas Buyers Club.”